A knee injury has scuppered Jason Rowland's dream of stepping into a Glasgow boxing ring to challenge for the IBF light welterweight championship of the world within days of the contest.

Rowland, 29, who lives with his wife, Carrie, and daughters, Billie and Rosie, in Rettendon, was due to be challenging American champion Zab Judah for his title on the undercard of the hugely controversial Mike Tyson versus Lou Saverese world heavyweight championship bill at Hampden Park, Glasgow on Saturday, June 24.

Without a doubt, Judah would have posed the toughest hurdle to date in Rowland's career, and the British champion and Lonsdale Belt holder had been confidently predicting he would do well against a southpaw who has 22 wins and a draw from his 23 contests.

But, just as Jason was stepping into the ring for a sparring session on Friday, he ruptured a cartilage in his right knee.

"Jason's devastated," said Carrie. "Now he's on crutches and should be going in for keyhole surgery on Friday.

"His knee went just as he was climbing into the ring. Everyone heard it. The West Ham United physio was there and diagnosed the problem straight away.

"Now we just have to hope he won't be out of action for too long. It's such a shame, we were really looking forward to the fight."

The injury is the latest twist in the on-off saga of the bout. Earlier this month it looked as if Rowland's chance for a world title would be put on the back burner for the second time, when he was lined up to defend his British title on July 15 instead - this after the Judah fight had already been switched from its original May date in Milan.

Rowland spoke of his relief at the time: "I was on a beach in Spain when my trainer, Jimmy Tibbs, rang me and told me I'd have to get back to training. That's boxing for you. I'm trying to put as much work in now as I can. I feel all right - I just wish I had a little more time."

Now, however, he has that time. Although Rowland has not fought since November, he is convinced he has a better jab than the champion. He has plenty of respect for Judah, but believed he could have matched him for a few rounds. Then, as he said, "anything might have happened".

Although Jason had accepted he would have been the underdog against Judah, he had been bouyed by the knowledge he has won all but one of his 25 contests - and his only defeat, four years ago, came when he was hit after the bell by Bernard Paul.

Rowland has a powerful jab and has stopped 17 opponents inside the distance.

Now his fans will be hoping he will get another chance to go for world title glory in the not too distant future.

Wretched luck: British champion Jason Rowland, from Rettendon, pictured with his Lonsdale Belt, was due to fight IBF world champion Zab Judah for his title at Hampden Park, Glasgow on Saturday, June 24, but a knee injury has forced him to pull out.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.